Aaron's rod

282
AARON'S ROD
"Me? I care for several things. I care for my wife. I
care for love. And I care to be loved. And I care for some
pleasures. And I care for music. And I care for Italy."
"You are well off for cares," said Lilly.
"And you seem to me so very poor," said Del Torre.
"I should say so if he cares for nothing," interjaculated
Argyle. Then he clapped Lilly on the shoulder with a laugh.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! But he only says it to tease us," he cried,
shaking Lilly's
shoulder. "He cares more than we do for
his own way of loving. Come along, don't try and take us in.
We are old birds, old birds," said Argyle. But at that moment
he seemed a bit doddering.
"A man can't live," said the Italian, "without an object."
"Well and that object?" said Lilly.
"Well it may be many things. Mostly.it is two things.
love, and money. But it may be many things: ambition, pa-
triotism, science, art many things. But it is some objective.
Something outside the self. Perhaps many things outside the
self."
"I have had only one objective all my life," said Argyle.
"And that was love. For that I have spent my life."
"And the lives of a number of other people, too," said
Lilly.
"Admitted. Oh, admitted.
"
unless you're a miserable
It takes two to make love:
"Don't you think," said Aaron, turning to Lilly, "that how-
ever you try to get away from it, if you're not after money,
and can't fit yourself into a job you've got to, you've got to
try and find something else somebody else somebody. You
can't really be alone."
"No matter how many mistakes you've made you can't
really be alone ?" asked Lilly.
"You can be alone for a minute. You can be alone just in
that minute when you've broken free, and you feel heart thank-
ful to be alone, because the other thing wasn't to be borne.
But you can't keep on being alone. No matter how many
times you've broken free, and feel, thank God to be alone
(nothing on earth is so good! as to breathe fresh air and be